The Belgian chemical company said it’s delaying construction of its battery materials plant near Kingston, Ont. The company said the move is part of a larger strategic review caused by a “significant slowdown in short- and medium-term EV growth.” (The Logic)

Talking point: The delay, likely to be at least 18 months, is an about-face for Umicore. It announced it would spend €1.27 billion to expand the plant last October as customer BMW planned to invest more in Canadian manufacturing. The expanded plant was initially expected to create about 1,000 construction jobs and employ several hundred skilled workers, and was granted $551.3 million and $424.6 million in federal and provincial funding, respectively. In a press conference Friday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland defended the government’s big bets on the electric-vehicle supply chain despite similar struggles at other companies like Ford and Northvolt, saying there are “always bumps along the way” with industrial transformations. Umicore said its capital expenditures across its entire battery materials business this year has been cut to under €650 million.